John Harvey - Cold Light

Through the binoculars, Resnick could see the driver’s face behind the wheel, white, clean-shaven, middle-aged: alone.

“Time, Graham?”

“Four forty-two.”

Having parked the car, the man was making no attempt to move.

“Want me to check out the license plate?” Millington asked.

“Not yet. For all we know he’s got a short-wave radio scanning the police channels. Wait till he’s out of the car. And then alert Divine and Naylor first.”

Millington looked at his watch. “Four forty-four.”

Resnick nodded. “Here comes the delivery car, right on time.”

“This is it, then. What he’s waiting for.”

“Maybe. Maybe he’s just tired, taking a nap.”

“With both eyes open?”

The unmarked police car moved across the forecourt and drew to a halt as close to the main door as it could get. Resnick wiped away the first dampening of sweat. Headlights burned low against the field fence and the red tail lights blinked. The detective on the passenger side slid clear, leaned back across the seat, and lifted the black duffel bag clear.

“All right,” Millington said, “pay some bloody attention.”

Detective and duffel bag disappeared from sight.

“What’s he doing?” Millington asked.

“Nothing.”

“Come on, you bastard. Move.”

Four forty-seven and the plain-clothes man reappeared, went briskly around the back of the car, and resumed his seat; without rushing, the car drew away.

“I don’t believe it,” Millington said. “He’s not going to do a thing.”

“Yes, he is.”

Resnick held his breath as the door to the Orion opened and the driver set his feet on the tar-covered surface. “Radio, Graham.”

But Millington was already giving the signal to Mark Divine.

“Right!” Divine said in the storeroom and was on his way. Out in the main body of the restaurant, he took his time, saw the man coming towards him through the double set of glass doors. At the cash desk, he hesitated, picked up a roll of extra strong mints, and placed the money in the cashier’s hand. The man had to break step to get round him, Divine apologizing, stepping into his path by mistake, apologizing again, and heading for the door.

“Smoking or non-smoking, sir?” the cashier asked.

“I’m just off to the Gents’ first,” the man said. “But either’s fine.”

“Orion’s licensed to a Patrick Reverdy,” Millington said in the car, “address in Cheadle.”

“Long way from home,” Resnick said, glasses focused on the restaurant door.

When the man emerged from the toilet, he was still rubbing his hands together after using the dryer. Naylor was now sitting in the smoking section near the door, stirring sugar into his coffee. He watched as the man told the waitress he was expecting a friend and accepted a double seat towards the rear window. While he was waiting, he ordered a toasted tea cake and a cup of tea. Home-going traffic built up steadily on the road outside. Resnick talked briefly to Skelton, keeping him informed; at the other location, Siddons and Cossall were drawing a blank.

Another ten minutes, tea cake consumed, the man checked the time, picked up his bill, and walked between the tables towards the cashier; paying his bill, he left a fifty-pence tip on the counter, turned towards the exit, changed his mind, and turned back again towards the toilets. Naylor’s stomach muscles knotted tight.

“He’s staying too long,” said Millington, staring at his watch.

“Maybe he’s being careful,” Resnick replied.

When the man stepped back into the restaurant with the duffel bag in his hand, Naylor’s breath stopped. Nonchalant as you like with it, little swing with the right hand. “May be nothing,” the man said to the cashier, “but someone seems to have left this in the Gents’. Thought you might want to keep it safe out here. All this talk of bombs, someone might panic, stuff it down the loo.” He was holding the bag out towards the cashier, but so far she had made no move to take it. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I stuck it against my ear and had a good listen. Nothing ticks.”

Divine detained the man before he drove away and while Resnick checked back with Skelton, keeping him up to scratch, Millington came over and had a word. Nothing serious, no reason to get alarmed. The man’s driving license showed his name to be Reverdy; he’d driven there to spend an hour with a woman he’d met at last year’s Open University summer schooL “Lives in Spalding, but can’t always get away. Married, you see.”

“And you drove all the way from Cheadle?” Millington said.

“I know,” Reverdy said. “The things you do for love.”

In her car, parked at the far side of the garage on the A631, Helen Siddons set down the receiver and sighed, grim-faced. “Okay, that’s it. Let’s head back. It’s over.”

“Just so’s the day’s not a complete blow-out,” Cossall mumbled, “I suppose a quick fuck’s out of the question?”

If she heard him, Helen Siddons gave no sign.

Skelton was waiting for Resnick inside the double doors, falling into place alongside him on the stairs; no early run this morning, exhaustion in the superintendent’s movements, the veins that showed red in his eyes. Twice he had tried contacting Helen Siddons but her phone had been disconnected; sleepless he had lain beside the cold rebuke of Alice’s back.

“About the only thing that’s bloody clear, Charlie, one way or another, the bill for this one’s going to be firmly nailed to my door.”

Resnick shook his head. “I don’t see what else we could have done. As long as there’s still a chance the girl’s alive, we had to play along.”

At the landing, Skelton turned aside, shoulders slumped. “Half an hour, we’ll review where we are.”

But within half an hour both local radio stations had played extracts from the second tape on the air. It had been delivered by hand, a messenger with a motorcycle helmet and scarf wound about the lower part of his face, no chance of recognizing who it was. Someone in the news room had given the tape a cursory listen, switching off after several minutes when it became apparent what they’d got. After phone calls to department heads, solicitors, copies were made and sent to the police; one question asked-the assertion that an earlier tape had been received, demanding a ransom, was that true? The police spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny. That was enough.

Radio Nottingham put the item at the top of its scheduled news; Trent interrupted its programing with a special bulletin. Each newscaster gave a brief introduction covering Nancy Phelan’s disappearance and the lack of subsequent success in tracking her down before referring to an apparently unsuccessful attempt by the police, yesterday, to apprehend a man who claimed to have kidnapped Nancy and who had made a ransom demand. The extracts from the tape which followed were remarkably similar.

The instructions given to the police were clear and precise, as were the warnings. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, these were not heeded. It was simple, you see, all they had to do, these people, was follow what I told them and then my promise could have been kept and Nancy Phelan could have been reunited with her family and friends, safe and sound. But now …

I hope you’re listening to this, Jack, I hope you’re listening carefully, you and those advising you. Remember what I told you, Jack, if anything bad happens it’s going to be your fault, your fault, Jack, not mine. I hope you can cope with that, that responsibility .

Lynn had called Kevin Naylor early and arranged for him to give her a lift. Hedged in between the traffic on Upper Parliament Street, she recounted her mishap with the car.